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THERE’S no doubt in my mind about the, erm, hottest story in science this week – although I have already given up hope of ever properly understanding it. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching, Germany,…

I’VE ALWAYS been a sucker for scientific imaging competitions, which is just as well as this seems to be one of the main growth areas in science today. Every month seems to bring along a new competition for scientists to…

IT CANNOT have escaped your attention that, here in the western world at least, we are currently in the middle of the annual panic-inducing spendfest we call Christmas. The wallet-emptying season seems to start earlier each year, presaged by the…

I’VE BEEN following developments in microfluidics for a couple of decades now, since I first got my hands on a prototype glass chip in a German development laboratory in the 1990s. After asking my hosts very nicely, they reluctantly opened…

I’M GENUINELY intrigued by the reports which have surfaced in the last few days from the deep drilling project in Antarctica, which has found thriving microbial colonies in very hostile conditions in a sub-glacial lake. It has long been suggested…

WE’VE all been hearing a lot about ‘citizen science’over the last few years, and there is no doubt that this phenomenon is here to stay. We see volunteers taking part in projects as diverse as counting butterflies in urban parks…

OUR TIME has come. Where once to be a nerd was deeply uncool, today it is the epitome is stylishness. It seems that everywhere we look, the latest role models are adored more for their intellect than – as was…

THE LATEST attempt to establish a national-scale exhibition for the laboratory sector in the UK was launched this week, with the Lab Innovations show held at the NEC in Birmingham. This two-day event, held on Wednesday and Thursday, attracted around…

I’VE NEVER had the experience of going supersonic, but have recently been considering two of the less usual methods of doing so. Given the chance, I’m not sure which I’d have a go at first. The simple method is that…

DOES anybody still place any importance on the Nobel Peace Prize, or has this once-prestigious award finally made a mockery of itself one time too many? In the world of science, in the public eye at least, no accolade has…